Brandon was up at 5:50 am this morning. What is that all about???!!! I tried to get him back down for an hour, but no such luck. I decided to steer clear of caffeine this morning so that I could nap when Brandon napped.
After watching Daddy disappear down the escalator to the MRT, Brandon and I headed to the Forum to meet our friends, Polina and Daniel, for coffee and play. I enjoyed a great (decaf) cappuccino while chatting with Polina. She is originally from Russia, but she has lived in the U.S., London, and Tokyo before coming to Singapore. Her son Daniel is nine months old.
As Brandon was up so early this morning, we only spent about 45 minutes at the Forum playground before heading home. He crashed in the stroller about ten minutes before we got home, but I was able to transfer him to his cot (crib) without waking him. Yay!
Brandon slept for about an hour and half, so Mommy was also able to get a nice little snooze in. Yes, I should have been washing dishes instead, but there is always time for that, right?
When I got Brandon up from his nap, he fell back asleep on my shoulder. I don't think that lately he has been taking long enough naps. I think I mentioned before that a new high rise is being built right next door to us. It seems that the construction just keeps getting louder, and I think it is waking Brandon up from his naps early. I held Brandon out on our couch while he slept on me for another hour. While I hope that Brandon can get better naps, it was a special moment to hold my baby while he slept. He is getting so big so fast, and it is very sad for me. I just watched him sleeping and thought back through his first year of life. I feel like I savored his first year, and I still couldn't stop time. Unfortunately, I have a feeling that each year goes faster and faster.
This afternoon, Brandon and I met Steven down at his work because we had to go get our employment passes. Steven got an employment pass, and Brandon and I got dependent passes. I think they call them "green cards" here. We had an appointment at the office, which was between Steven's work and Clarke Quay, at 4 pm. The process didn't take too, too long. We had to get new passport photos there because the ones we took from home didn't have white enough backgrounds. Steven and I also had to get our fingerprints taken. They had a neat machine that scanned your fingerprint. Yay for no ink! We got paper employment passes today, and in a couple of weeks we can pick up the printed pass cards. I think they are similar to our drivers' licenses back home. We are legal now! :)
After a quick dinner with Steven, Brandon and I took the train back home.
We have to pass the pool on our way to the elevators, so Brandon saw all of the kids swimming when we returned. I guess that meant we'd be swimming again tonight! When we got up to our apartment, Brandon was standing at the door wanting to go back out. He is going to get spoiled here! Hope the adjustment when we get back to Chicago won't be too hard for him. :)
We only took a short swim tonight. Brandon was tormented down at the pool tonight by a little boy who wouldn't share his ball or his apple. How could he wrong Brandon like that??? Tough life lesson, huh?
We stopped at Jo's apartment for a few minutes on our way back up from the pool. What amazing people! Jo had been out today, and she bought Brandon a couple of new pairs of pajama pants. I had mentioned to her that we needed some more pj pants for Brandon, and she went and got some! She also gave us some nice plastic plates, spoons, and forks. We have been using glass, and I have already broken one cup in the sink. Oh, and she sent us home with two blueberry muffins. Wow!
I ran into one of our neighbors who is from Finland today. We had met him at the pool one night. He and his family have been here for six months for his wife's work, and they are leaving at the end of this week. He didn't work while they were here, but he is an opthamologist back in Finland. The last two weeks here, he has been doing some observations in a hospital. I told him that my dad is an optometrist. He thought that in the U.S., optometrists could perform PRK, while only opthamologists could perform LASIK. I told him that only opthamologists can perform PRK and LASIK. Sounds like in Finland, optometrists are really just opticians, and they don't have to go to any special optometry school. There, optometrists aren't trained to do eye exams or diagnose and/or treat eye disorders. Interesting... (Dad, let me know if I am incorrect on any of this.)
We met some more nice people down at the pool yesterday. They have a son who is two months older than Brandon. They are from Holland, but they currently live in Thailand. The husband's company advised them to leave Thailand for a while for safety due to the policital unrest there. They don't know how long they will be here. I think they are trying to go back to Holland for a bit, but they are having trouble getting a flight there right now.
So many unique people here with very interesting backgrounds and stories!
